Leading a cricket team may be different from leading a corporate house. But former England captain Mike Brearley would have us believe that there is a great deal of similarity between the two. Hence, his prescriptions about a good leader apply as much to a cricket captain as to corporate manager.
For him, leaders should have dual personalities they should be both democratic and authoritarian, passionate and detached, visionary and common sensical. They should have conviction and decision-making capabilities as well as negative qualities. These, he says, lead to flattening of management and there will be a constant flow of ideas at all levels.
Mind you, for Brearley, there are no textbook rules. A leader must learn through experiments. There is no concept of a perfect leader. .... Leadership is an art not a science.
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Delivering the first ITC Winning edge series lecture here on Tuesday, he suggested that duration of a cricket match and the range of skills needed made a cricket team akin to a corporate house. The captain, like a managing director, must know individual psychology as well as the group psychology.
In a lecture, which was woven with anecdotes from the field, he sought to prove that a cricket captains role is much more akin to the role of a manager and there could be an exchange of ideas between the two. There is less scope for instincts and more for planning and thought in cricket as in corporations.
He outlined two major tendencies in a company which the leader must know: Tendencies to keep the flock together and negative features which work against collaboration. And a good leader should be skilful enough to control both.
A good leader must strive to bring out the inherent potential of his group members and this can be achieved if he is genuinely interested in listening to others. No one has monopoly over creative ideas. The need to respect others ideas helps in getting the best out of people.
An encouraging leader may force others to start thinking. We all know more than what we often think we know, he said. And the leader must help in bringing out what is hitherto hidden.
Even a batsman of the quality of Geoffrey Boycott needed to reminded time and again that he was a great player, Brearley said.
Another quality a group leader should have is trust in his group members. He gave an example of a UK company where delegation of power was not well defined. This in turn entailed constant interference by the leader on day to day affairs. The result was there was a lot of resentment. This leads to a bad situation, he said.
A leader should be flexible as well. Another former England captain Mike Gatting could not bring out the best of David Gower because of his inflexibility. Gatting devised a fixed schedule for workout for his players and Gower found it hard to adjust himself to. Gower was a genius. Gatting should have been flexible enough to accommodate him without being biased, Brearley said.
Ability to be flexible may lead to encouraging unorthodoxy. But to be creative may sometimes entail swimming against the current and such risks are worth taking, Brearley said.
To counter disruptive tendencies in a group, a leader must be firm enough to deal with the errant. Or he can mobilise the group as a whole to accomplish the task. Hence a leader must be decisive and should work with full conviction even if he has to take some unpleasant decisions, Brearley said.